St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-28
PERSIAN PERKS AT THE BATH
Scraped, Rubbed, ParbOiIed and
Pumiced for Hours,

PumlCeu Tor Hours.
The bath takes up good deal of the
time of all Persian women. Even the
poorest will attend the hammam at
least once a week. For the lady the
bath is one of the serious affairs of life,
and takes up daily from two to four
hours of her time. 1t is something more
than our idea of bath, says writer in
the st. James Gazette
The victim is Scraped and rubbed and
parbOiled. The SOies of the feet are
pumiced until they are soft and tender
as those of little child. The hair is
thoroughly washed by means of hot
water and the SaponaceouS clay for
which ShiraZ is celebrated. Then the
attendants mix in brazen bowl the ar
omatic henna with the requisite amount
OF lemon juice, till brown paste of the
consistency of Cruel is produced, and
several handfulS of the repulsive-look-
ing compound are smeared over the
lady'S head. Then the hair, collected
into mass, is bound up in cabbage
leaves.
Small quantities of the dive are
smeared over the eyebrows: the SOleS of
the feet, the toes, the palms of the hands
and finger tips are also covered with it,
And now the lady has to sit perfectly
still for from one to three hours, till
like meerSchaum pipe, she cOlors, and
it is exactly the color obtained on the best
specimens of pipes that are most fash
lonable among Persian ladies.
Day after day the bath is thronged
with women, each sitting perfectly still
for the color to take. But they have
their reward. for the henna dyes the
hair beautiful deep, warm chest
nut; hence gray hair is unknown
among Persian ladies. While the
cOlOring process has been going On
tongues have been running and a good
deal of scandal has been exchanged
The female barber with pair of tweez-
erS, has removed, every outlying hair
from the region of the lrdy's eyebrows.
1t is the ambition of every Persian
woman that her eyebrows shall meet, or
at least appear to do so. So attractive
are eyebrows that meet that they are
called the bridge of love. The first
care, then. of the Persian beauty is with
little pencil of antimony to unite her
eyebrows, and then she proceeds to
make them of unnatural thickness;
her eyelashes are penciled, too, i'll
manner not unknown to our country
women.
By this time the lady will have smoked
many kalians or water pipes, she will
have partaken of tea and RECALLED her
self with coffee; iced Sherbets, too, will
not have been wanting. Her finger
tips, nails and palms, as well as the
soles of her feet and her toes, have at
tanned bright chestnut hue which will
last week. The hair is carefully
washed once more. 1t is seldom under
a yard long, often much more: for the
Persian woman never cuts her hair, ex-
cept i'll front, perhaps, when two heavy
love locks are left Oh either side of the
face.
The ladies' now return home to their
MONDAY breakfast. After breakfast
generally there is a siesta, and this in a
hot country is almost neces,i ty About
4 tea and pipes appear; and then the
lady receives callers or pays visits or
perhaps does little shopping, or takes
the air mounted on her ambling mule or
Il donkey of snowy WhiteneSS.